Professor Chris Hays

Abstract:

The Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) is a general-purpose experimental apparatus with an inner tracking detector for measuring charged particles, surrounded by a calorimeter for measurements of electromagnetic and hadronic showers. We describe a geant4 simulation and parameterization of the response of the CDF central electromagnetic calorimeter (CEM) to incident electrons and photons. The detector model consists of a detailed description of the CEM geometry and material in the direction of the incident particle's trajectory, and of the passive material between the tracker and the CEM. We use geant4 to calculate the distributions of: the energy that leaks from the back of the CEM, the energy fraction sampled by the scintillators, and the energy dependence of the response. We parameterize these distributions to accurately model electron and photon response and resolution in a custom simulation for the measurement of the W boson mass. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

Abstract:

We report on a measurement of the cross section for direct-photon production in association with a heavy quark using the full data set of √s=1.96 TeV proton-antiproton collisions corresponding to 9.1 fb -1 of integrated luminosity collected by the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. The measurements are performed as a function of the photon transverse momentum, covering a photon transverse momentum between 30 and 300 GeV, photon rapidities |yγ|<1.0, a heavy-quark-jet transverse momentum pTjet>20 GeV, and jet rapidities |yjet|<1.5. The results are compared with several theoretical predictions. © 2013 American Physical Society.

Abstract:

We present a search for the pair production of a narrow nonstandard-model strongly interacting particle that decays to a pair of quarks or gluons, leading to a final state with four hadronic jets. We consider both nonresonant production via an intermediate gluon as well as resonant production via a distinct nonstandard-model intermediate strongly interacting particle. We use data collected by the CDF experiment in proton-antiproton collisions at √s=1.96 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 6.6 fb -1. We find the data to be consistent with nonresonant production. We report limits on σ(pp̄→jjjj) as a function of the masses of the hypothetical intermediate particles. Upper limits on the production cross sections for nonstandard-model particles in several resonant and nonresonant processes are also derived. © 2013 American Physical Society.

Abstract:

We present the first signature-based search for delayed photons using an exclusive photon plus missing transverse energy final state. Events are reconstructed in a data sample from the CDF II detector corresponding to $6.3 \text{fb}^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity from $\sqrt{s}=1.96$ TeV proton-antiproton collisions. Candidate events are selected if they contain a photon with an arrival time in the detector larger than expected from a promptly-produced photon. The mean number of events from standard model sources predicted by the data-driven background model based on the photon timing distribution is $286 \pm 24$. A total of 322 events are observed. A $p$-value of 12% is obtained, showing consistency of the data with standard model predictions.